Hairdressing, sewing, cooking – is this really how we’re going to empower women?
In the blue tent on the building site that forms Noora Murat Khalaf’s home, the shiny new sewing machine is incongruous, to say the least. The sewing machine was given by an NGO, as part of a women’s empowerment programme. Along with a cohort of other displaced Yazidi and Christian women, Khalaf completed a short […]Samira Shackle writes for The Guardian:
In the blue tent on the building site that forms Noora Murat Khalaf’s home, the shiny new sewing machine is incongruous, to say the least.
The sewing machine was given by an NGO, as part of a women’s empowerment programme. Along with a cohort of other displaced Yazidi and Christian women, Khalaf completed a short course in tailoring, learning to sew alongside lessons on business skills.
At first, she was optimistic about the opportunity. She enjoyed the course and hoped it might lead to an income. But in the year since she finished the programme, it has proved impossible to earn money from the sewing machine. “People here in Erbil usually buy their clothes from shops ready-made,” she says. “Yazidi people like traditional tailored clothes, but all the Yazidis here are also refugees, so they have no money.” Occasionally, she mends her family’s clothes or those of neighbours – for free – but otherwise the machine is unused.
